


heaven is a place on earth

by neopunch (caihongs)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Alternate Universe - Black Mirror Episode: s03e04 San Junipero, Childhood Friends, Domestic Bliss, Established Relationship, M/M, mention of 97z and 96z :’), minghao has Thoughts, now Lovers, only loosely inspired! it’s just set in the 1980s-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29174304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caihongs/pseuds/neopunch
Summary: It’s music that floods the entire town every night, and coming home to the softer, but never unwelcome, chorus of the tide. It’s the way summer stretches for eternity here, and in that sense, it seems the town doesn’t want them to leave either.
Relationships: Wen Jun Hui | Jun/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19
Collections: 姐妹 exchange!!





	heaven is a place on earth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [joydecoy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joydecoy/gifts).



> hello! neopunch makes her svt debut with 8jun! [self applause] though this is inspired by the black mirror episode san junipero, it serves as only the vaguely 80s setting and nothing else so you don’t have to have watched it to read this :) this is a belated birthday present for dearest ying whom i (also we the jmc) miss very much! i hope this is to your liking and again, happy birthday mei! <3
> 
> \+ a special thank u 2 hui for beta’ing this for me i luv u

_Coastal California. Silhouetted mountains, moonlit sea. Lights twinkling near the shoreline. We move closer to see the lights of the town. Streetlights. Nightclubs and bars. Cars drifting up and down the main street. There's a billboard advertising a film starring Hollywood starlets with forgettable names. We move closer:_

  
  


Minghao feels like air. Everywhere and not quite here at the same time. The only thing that grounds him is a hand on his waist, holding him down before he strays too far. The flame spreads from the palm to the fingertips and wraps Minghao up with warmth with just one point of contact.

  
  


“Tired yet, my love?” Tickling the shell of his ear on purpose, Minghao jerks away from the sensation with a scrunch of his nose and Junhui grins at him, bemused.

  
  


“And if I say no?” Minghao responds petulantly, moving his head to lean on the other man’s shoulder, the silk of his shirt soft against his cheek. The night is still young, for it is only one hour past midnight and they both know the strip will be animated well into the wee hours of daybreak. 

  
  


“And pretend your feet aren’t aching like hell?” Junhui looks pointedly at the boots on Minghao’s feet with a raised eyebrow and Minghao crosses one leg behind the other as if it’ll hide them. Minghao knew breaking in new shoes on a night like this, reserved solely for dancing at the edge of the world with the love of his life, was not a good idea but they were _pretty_ and Minghao has always been a sucker for shiny things. 

  
  


“But of course, we can go for another round. I hear your favourite tune playing across the street,” Junhui says with an air of nonchalance that Minghao wants to swallow up in a kiss. He doesn’t, for Minghao is in love, but not above being childish first. 

  
  


“You’re awful. _Fine_ , let’s go home old man.” Minghao peels himself off Junhui’s side and stalks off, wincing when he leans back on his heel the wrong way and lightning surges through his entire calf. Junhui snorts loudly and jogs after him, hands back on his waist where they belong. 

  
  


“Is it so bad for you to be wrong and me right all the time?” Junhui says while pressing a kiss to his temple and Minghao rolls his eyes when he turns around, only to find his place on his shoulder again. The street is neon-lit and adorned with girls in sparkly mini-skirts with fluttery lashes and men with popped collars and wandering eyes. He spots friends in every single joint along the strip but refrains from running in, even when he spots Seokmin and Mingyu on top of a table with cobalt-blue glasses in hand, engaged in a drunken duet that he would love to join, only for Junhui to lean his head into one foggy bar when he somehow spots Soonyoung and Wonwoo lingering in the hallway.

  
  


“What happened to being _tired,_ hm?” 

  
  


“I just wanted to say hello,” Junhui shoots back, sulky when Minghao tugs him away by the wrist. 

  
  


“Don’t want to spend anymore time with me? I’m wounded, baby.” Minghao feigns pain in his chest, performance akin to a Broadway star, and enjoys it immensely when Junhui shakes his head at him, biting his lip as to not smile.

  
  


“You’re a piece of work, _Xu Minghao_.” The full name is what makes Minghao grin wide, his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose when he winks at his lover. 

  
  


“Come on darling, the water is waiting for us.” 

  
  


Junhui is dragged down the block as Minghao jogs to the very end of the pavement, the spiking pain in his feet bearable when he sees the moonlit ocean. 

  
  


The soles of his shoes sink into the soft dirt where gravel meets grass and grass meets sand and he stands for a moment and watches the waves push and pull against the shore, mesmerised by a sight he could paint with his eyes closed. 

  
  


“Do you want to stay out here tonight? I can bring out the blanket and the—” 

  
  


Minghao shakes his head, though impossibly touched by Junhui’s ability to read him so well. Junhui looks at him, questioning him with those brown eyes of his.

  
  


“Let’s go home.” 

  
  


And so Junhui acquiesces, and they make their way up the hill, flanked by the lights and the sea. Two shadows with no ends or beginnings, blending in seamlessly with the landscape where the Golden State splits for them. Minghao is now earth, ready to sleep in his bed of roses with his own flower beside him. The front door, painted cornflower blue, opens for them with a creak when Junhui shakes the key in the lock in the right direction, and they slip out of their shoes, Minghao less gracefully as one goes into the shoe rack and the other hits the couch leg, and Junhui makes an affronted sound before sighing and switching on the light. The lamp barely illuminates a radius wider than two feet or so but it’s enough to let them gauge where they are. They’ve always preferred the dark anyway.

  
  


Junhui gets changed first, and Minghao would be lying if he wasn’t breathless at the sight. He’s seen this for more than half his life, but it never loses its beauty. 

The lines that decorate his back, divots made deeper over the years curve and contort as he slips on a thin linen shirt, and Minghao despises the way his cheeks flush when Junhui turns around, completely unaware of his impact. The deep V of his button-down is even more distracting and Minghao does _not_ want to entertain him when Junhui belatedly realises why Minghao is so silent.

  
  


“My eyes are up here.” Junhui is too smug for Minghao’s liking, especially when it comes at the cost of his mortification, and reaches over to hold him by the wrist.

  
  


“I despise you greatly.” Minghao wriggles his way out of Junhui’s grip and slips through the narrow gap in the doorway and Junhui laughs at him. His hair mussed after all the dancing and sitting ruffled over his forehead, height accentuated by the way his shorts hit him mid-thigh, almost hidden by his billowing shirt as he leans against the doorframe. Kind eyes framed by long lashes, lips always curled slightly at the ends, and modestly built like a Greek statue, Minghao wonders if Junhui himself has ever realised just how beautiful he is. 

  
  


“Shoo.” Minghao waves him off with a hand and Junhui puts his hands up in surrender, all the while still smiling as he pivots on his heel and his footsteps pad over softly to their bed. Minghao slips out of his own clothes and finds another one of Junhui’s shirts to wear.

  
  


Junhui, starfished across their sheets when Minghao finds him, sits up and leans his back on the headboard, patting the space next to him. Minghao goes for lying his head on his lover’s lap, perpendicular to him, and curls his knees up to his chest. 

  
  


The air is sweet with salt and the remnants of a candle burnt earlier in the day. Minghao’s chest rises and falls with steady breaths as they bask in the chorus of the wind and sea behind them. The curtains fly behind them, drawn enough to let the moonlight in, and Minghao fiddles with the string coming undone from the hem of Junhui’s shorts as they sit in silence.

  
  


But Minghao can’t help but think when spaces are too quiet to distract him.

  
  


“Some day, would you want to leave this place?” _Like we left home the first time, and all the homes after that?_

  
  


They’ve never stayed in one place for too long. Whether it was out of fear, or boredom, or both, they’ve moved with the seasons, one cycle going and effectively, signifying their departure. Sometimes it’s because Minghao goes and Junhui always follows. Sometimes, Minghao likes to think.

Because Junhui would move the oceans if Minghao wanted to settle in the depths of the seafloor, but he likes to think that Junhui left with him because he _wanted_ to all this time. 

  
  


“You know we can leave if you want to, sweetheart.” Junhui’s hands find their way to Minghao’s hair, carding through his black locks with practised ease. 

  
  


“I know,” he pauses and Junhui’s ministrations halt as well.

  
  


“I think I like us here.” 

  
  


It’s being able to touch and kiss Junhui silly under bright lights without people uttering a word. It’s dancing and singing and drinking and laughing with people he’s met and grown to adore up until twilight hour. It’s visiting Junhui at work with tickets to the theatre in hand and watching his eyes catch the light like loose glitter on glass. It’s music that floods the entire town every night, and coming home to the softer, but never unwelcome, chorus of the tide. It’s the way summer stretches for eternity here, and in that sense, it seems the town doesn’t want them to leave either.

  
  


“So we’ll stay.”

  
  


“Do—do you want that, though?” 

  
  


It’s his first time asking. For all this time it seemed to just make sense that they’d move in tandem, but that is Minghao’s ignorance speaking. Because for every extra day that summer stays, Minghao realises that he has been selfish. Selfish in knowing Junhui would follow him across the world like the moon does the sun, and relishing in that fact instead of questioning it. 

  
  


“Why wouldn’t I?” He continues brushing through Minghao’s hair, gently, with his other hand placed on Minghao’s chest just below the base of his neck. His touch burns through the fabric and Minghao instinctively puts his own hand on top, fingers eclipsing Junhui’s

  
  


“You never say no.”

  
  


“How could I ever say no to you?”

  
  


Minghao rolls over from his side to face Junhui. 

  
  


“You can though, you know that right?” It comes out soft for Minghao is afraid that saying this, these simple words strung together in an unequivocal manner, signifies something else. As if accusing Junhui of mindlessly adhering to Minghao’s needs and wants. Of assuming he to be so in love that—

  
  


Junhui meets his eyes and a smile naturally spreads over his face.

  
  


_“You’ve grown up so much little one.”_ It feels much more patronising in their own language and Minghao has half a mind to actually throw a fit over the fact that Junhui doesn’t take him seriously at all—like the child he swore he never wanted to be, but the hands in his hair keep him pinned down.

  
  


They’ve grown quicker than most, and yet Minghao still feels like a child. Like he’s always being accommodated for, like he’s back in that house with ceilings too high, walls too white, and far too many people giving him everything he’s ever wanted. 

  
  


“You know I’m always going to want to be wherever you are. Whether it’s nowhere or here, I say yes because I want to.” 

  
  


Minghao is relieved instantly but his conscience tells him that he’s foolish for being so easily placated.

  
  


“What will make you believe me?” Junhui’s voice is soft, matching his gaze and Minghao for once, doesn’t know what to say. 

  
  


Minghao has no real reason to _not_ believe him, to not believe that Junhui would be dishonest with him.

  
  


“Are you sure?” 

  
  


“When have I ever lied to you?” 

  
  


Minghao pretends to think long and hard before Jun nips him in the shoulder and Minghao yelps.

  
  


“You’re a devil.” Junhui mutters and Minghao turns his nose up.

  
  


“You adore me.”

  
  


“You know that but you still asked.” It’s not harsh, merely a statement but it makes him feel sick.

  
  


“I’m sorry. I just—” _Your unconditional devotion scares me._

  
  


Maybe it takes years of knowing each other, and finding it too easy to love each other at the same time that lets them communicate without words at all. Maybe Junhui has taught him that love can be just that; unconditional because they’re all they’ve ever known and being with each other has never been different. Because Junhui bends down to kiss him, slow and sweet, and although Minghao has never been one for letting kisses shut him up, he allows it this time.

  
  


“Sleep now, _qīn ài de_.” 

  
  


And so, with the ocean waves in his ears, salty air on his tongue, cheek pressed against warm skin, he closes his eyes and dreams about forever in a boy’s hands instead.

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/renminsungs) \+ [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/jukevs)


End file.
